John 9:17

What sayest thou? Emphasis is upon the “thou.” The Pharisees disagreed among themselves, and this question may have been designed to conceal their division.

That he hath opened. The connection between this clause and the preceding is better shown by rendering the conjunction translated “that” as “in that,” or “since” (RSV). The thought of the Greek runs as follows: “And you, what do you say of him since it is your eyes he has opened?”

He is a prophet. In Greek the word “prophet” lacks the article. The healed man is not acknowledging Jesus to be “that prophet,” as had the multitudes fed with the loaves and fishes (see on ch. 6:14; cf. ch. 1:21). But he recognizes that Jesus is more than an ordinary man. He is convinced that the power that brought healing is of God, and that the person who exercised it is a messenger from God. His testimony contradicted that of the Pharisees who declared, “This man is not of God” (ch. 9:16).